Think Small
by Dragonhulk
Summary: Xander gets sent to another small town suspected of having a Hellmouth, and gets far more than he thought possible.
1. Chapter 1

Think Small

Author: Dragonhulk

Disclaimer: I own nothing and just watch the shows for fun. If I owned the rights to anything you see here I would have more than two dollars in savings.

Rating: Teen. I assure you I will write nothing worse than what was shown in the TV series.

Summery: Xander gets sent to another small town suspected of having a Hellmouth, and gets far more than he thought possible.

* * *

Xander was pissed, and worse he didn't have anyone to take it out on. It had been only five months after Sunnydale had become the world's largest sink hole, and here he was driving to nowhere, USA to see if a new Hellmouth was being formed.

"One year, just one year to recover, that's all I wanted," growled Xander as he passed a sign welcoming him to the town.

After five minutes Xander could tell that the town lived up to it's name and then some. The place was surprisingly small, despite being only two hours away from a large city like Metropolis.

"Okay I'm getting way too upset, I need some sugar and caffeine," said Xander.

He had seen a total of two coffee places during his drive. The first looked like some Starbucks knockoff, but the other place looked interesting. Yeah, interesting, that was the complete basis of his decision. His choice had nothing to do with the fact that the Talon was closer and he could just feel his caffeine deprived blood planning open rebellion against his brain, nothing at all.

"I'll take your most caffeinated drink and your most sugar filled pastry," said Xander the second he got to the counter.

"Coming right up," said the brunette waitress as she tried to contain her laughter. "If you take a seat I'll get your order to you in just a few minutes."

Bah, let her laugh, after staying up all night because the couple in the next room had been on their honeymoon he didn't care how he acted as long as he got his fix.

Looking around the room Xander was disappointed to find that there was only one seat available, and a young blond girl was already at the table.

"Is it okay if I sit here?" asked Xander.

"Oh, no problem," said the girl. "I can't study at the library, so if you don't mind the mess, help yourself."

"Yeah, I avoided the library as much as I could in high school too," said Xander as he sat down and waited for his order to arrive. Of course his high school library was directly over the mouth of hell and every memory he associated with it was related to death and the end of the world so he had a good reason. Hmm, that reminded him; he needed to check out the school library.

"I don't avoid it, it's just that I can't learn anything without a certain comfortable amount of noise."

"Ah yes, because police reports take so much concentration," said Xander as he pointed to the image on her laptop.

"Social Studies report," said the girl as she quickly closed down the window.

"Whatever, name's Xander by the way," said Xander.

"Chloe," said the girl. "And now that we know each other so well I think I should tell you that it looks like you could use about five days of sleep."

"Just one night would work," said Xander. "So either an empty motel or one with thick walls should do the trick."

"Well that takes care of how you look, now lets try for why you're here," said Chloe with a look in her eyes that would have usually set off every alarm Xander had in his head.

"Land hunting," said Xander as he ran his hand over his stubble. Man he really had been in a rush to leave this morning. "My employers are thinking of building a private school here, so they sent me to scout things out."

"Why did they pick this town?" asked Chloe.

"Close enough to Metropolis for all the comforts, but far enough away to avoid the distractions. Plus this is a farming community, that means the developers can usually pick up some land at a good price by just offering to pay off it's debt," said Xander as his mind tried to dredge up a good cover story.

"Sorry to tell you this, but you're wasting your time," said Chloe. "Luthor Corp has already bought up all the land that's for sale, everyone else either isn't in trouble or isn't selling."

"Well that complicates things," said Xander. "I'll have to talk to Luthor Corp as well as the farmers about the land then. More work, joy."

"Ah the chains of adulthood, however will you survive," said Chloe.

"Not bad, not bad. Try a little less sarcasm next time and you'll have the sleep deprived person scratching their head wondering if you were being serious or not," said Xander as he tried to hold back a yawn. Where the heck was his order?

"Hey, I'll have you know that I'm not sarcastic, I'm just jaded," said Chloe.

"You don't get to be jaded until you have an obituary in your school paper," said Xander.

"I'll see your obituary and raise you a Wall of Weird," said Chloe.

"Say what now?" asked Xander as the waitress finally brought him his brain food.

"Sorry it took so long, it's really busy today, and one of our employees was late coming in," said the cute brunette that took his order.

"Don't worry Lana, I kept him company. Besides he's so exhausted you could have taken a year and he wouldn't have been able to walk out," said Chloe with a smile.

"Coffee now, witty comeback later," said Xander right before he took a long sip of the life giving liquid. Hey he was a demon hunter from California; caffeine addiction naturally came from finding ways to stay up all night so the world didn't end.

"Just don't scare the tourists too badly Chloe," said Lana as she went back to deliver more drinks.

"I don't know, I think I'm in the mood for a good scare," said Xander as he took a bite of something that was nothing less than pure sugary goodness. "So Chloe, tell me about this Wall of Weird."


	2. Bizarre

"So you're telling me that one of these things could mutate my DNA and turn me into some kind of monster?" asked Xander as he casually tossed a meteor rock up and down in his right hand. This simple exercise was more difficult that it was seven months ago, but doing things like this was helping him get some sense of depth perception. It would never be as good as when he had two eyes, but this way he would only run over the things he wanted to run over when he was driving.

"Yep, but they seem to need something to set them off, otherwise they're just cheap paperweights," said Chloe.

"So they're like primer cord then, harmless unless it comes into contact with some kind of energy source," said Xander.

"Yeah, and there was a lot of Thermal and Kinetic energy when these things first came down," said Chloe.

"Big words, let me guess, you have a physics test coming up," said Xander.

"That obvious huh?" asked Chloe with a smile.

"Hey it wasn't that long ago that I was sleeping through my chemistry class," said Xander with a chuckle. "Man how old did I sound just now?"

"No worse than the average twenty something that is trying to convince a teenager that he can relate, trust me I've heard worse," said Chloe.

"So have I, but so help me if I begin to brood and start growing extra forehead I'm blowing my brains out," said Xander.

"Um I'm sure that made sense to you, but just to let you know hearing scruffy one eyed men talking about guns is just a bit unnerving," said Chloe.

"Sorry, it's an old joke, and for a while I forgot that you wouldn't know the punch line," said Xander as he rubbed the back of his head. "Listen as fun and educational as this has been, I really should get back to finding a place for the school to be built."

"Wait a minute, I tell you stories of the monsters these things have made and you still plan to build a school here?" asked Chloe.

"It's not up to me Chloe," said Xander as he started to once again lie through his teeth. "It's my job to find a place for the school to be built, and if I don't do it my employers will just send someone else to do the job. However I do have a friend who's a bit higher up than me, and he may be able to get the school to offer a self defense course so can have a fighting chance."

"I guess I can understand that, even if I don't like it, and a self defense course would help them out," said Chloe. "Just out of curiosity though, exactly who do you plan to swindle first?"

"First off I don't plan to swindle anyone, I've been told I can offer fair amounts because the boss people will make it up when the rich daddies part with the tuition," said Xander. "Now to answer your question my first stop is the Kent farm. The place is perfect, it's large enough for both the school and grounds, far enough away that the girls won't be a problem for and… Chloe why are you giggling like that?"

"I'm sorry, just give me a moment here," said Chloe as she tried to get her laughter under control.

"You know most men would take this uncontrolled laughter personally," said Xander, which caused Chloe to laugh even harder.

"I'm sorry, it's not you, really," said Chloe as she caught her breath. "It just seems like every developer in Smallville seems to want that farm, but no one has a chance of getting it."

"Why? If it's a money thing I think I can get my bosses to offer more," said Xander.

"Trust me, money isn't an issue here, not even Lionel Luthor has enough money," said Chloe. "I know the Kent's, so trust me when I tell you that the only way that you, or anyone else, will own the farm is if you pry the deed from the cold dead hands of Jonathan Kent."

"Well I still have to go if I'm going to write off the coffee and pastry as business expenses," said Xander as he put the meteor rock in his pocket.

"Okay, see you around then," said Chloe as Xander walked out the door. "And now that you aren't in the room it's time to find out just what kind of employers you have Mr. Harris."

* * *

"The answer's no, now get out of my house," said Jonathan Kent.

"Will you at least hear my offer?" asked Xander. It was funny in a way, he had fought vampires and demons for years with only minimal protection, but this middle age man was making him wish he had brought some body armor.

"No. I've kept this farm going during tough times in the past, and I intend to see it through all the tough times in the future. There is no amount of money in this world or any other that will make me chance my mind."

"Okay, in that case can you tell me of any farms that would consider selling, something about this size and this far from town?"

"None that I know of. Now unless I'm mistaken I told you to get out of my house," said Jonathan.

"Okay, okay I'm going," said Xander as he quickly went out the door.

If he wasn't so freaked out by the look in the older man's eye Xander would have easily avoided colliding with the young man who was walking through the front door. Now under normal circumstances the two men would brush themselves off and be on their way, however today the chunk of meteor rock in Xander's pocket ensured that today events would play off differently.

"Hey kid, are you alright?" asked Xander as he saw the young man double over in pain.

"What's going on over here," said Jonathan Kent as he as his wife came out to see what was going on.

"I think your son needs to go to the hospital," said Xander as he took the weak pulse of the green young man.

It was at this point that Xander did the worst possible thing he could do. He had spent the last two months memorizing and practicing a stabilizing spell that could be used in the field to make sure that the Slayers didn't die before they could get properly treated. As he held the obviously dying young man in his arms Xander didn't even hesitate in saying the words to the spell.

The simple act of casting a small spell was all the meteor rock needed to fully activate. The explosion that resulted from this activation sent both young men hurling in opposite directions, but by this time the damage had already been done.

"Clark, are you alright?" asked Martha Kent as the two parents as they checked on their child.

"Yeah, I'm alright, but what about the other guy?" asked Clark with a groan.

"You stay here son, I'll go and check on him," said Jonathan as he stood up and started to walk towards the other body. He didn't have that much hope that the young man would be uninjured and simply prayed that Xander still had a spark of life in him.

When he got closer to the body he immediately noticed that the skin was chalk white, and there was a chunk of clear meteor rock lying close to him. That explained why Clark got sick, but not the explosion.

"Are you okay?" asked Jonathan as he took the mans pulse.

Jonathan Kent had seen many things so he was able to suppress his instinct to jump out of his skin when Xander bolted upright and said, "Worry Mr. Kent, me blame you for everything!"

"Son lie back down, you aren't making sense," said Jonathan as he tried not to shudder at the insane grin that was plastered on that chalk white face. At the moment the man looked more like an insane clown more than anything else, an image that would probably disturb the changed young man more than it was currently disturbing the middle aged man.

Xander simply looked at the older man for a few moments before shaking his head and saying, "Sorry about that. I meant to say that you shouldn't worry; I don't blame you for any of this. Do you think you could help me inside though, the sun is really hurting my eyes?"

For a boy who was just blown up he was remarkably calm and lucid. It was almost as if he experienced something similar on a regular basis.

"Do you think you can stand?" asked Jonathan, who was surprised when the previously injured man stood up, and immediately disappeared in the exact way that Clark often did.

"What in blazes!" exclaimed the eldest Kent.

"I'm over here," said Xander from inside the house. "Does anyone want to explain why you were all doing impersonations of statues a few seconds ago?"


	3. Proof

"I'm waiting," said Xander as he waited for everyone to recover from their shock.

"Clark?" asked Jonathan Kent as he looked at his son, something that greatly irritated Xander because they appeared to be ignoring him.

The young dark haired man instantly covered the distance between himself and Xander faster than most people could blink. While this action surprised Xander, it didn't really shock him; he'd seen too much to get shocked.

"What the Hell!" screamed the one eyed Watcher. Okay so there may have been just a little bit of shock.

"Son, if you'll just come inside and calm down I'll explain everything to you," said the farmer, as he started to make his way toward the house at a much more mortal pace.

"I think I'd rather have those answers right now," said Xander as he stepped into the sunlight, and instantly doubled over in pain. This time it wasn't just his eye that was hurting, this time every inch of skin that was exposed to sunlight felt like it was on fire.

Xander was vaguely aware through his pain of someone pulling him someplace, and then the pain instantly stopping. The first thought that his now clear mind came up with was that he was still changing, and the second thought was that he needed to know what these people knew.

"Okay, I'm ready for those explanations now, but I have to warn you that if you mention possessions I'm probably going to loose it again," said Xander in a shaky voice.

The Kent family shared a look, and Xander instantly knew that they were trying to decide just how much they should tell him. Usually he didn't mind if people kept their secrets to themselves, after all he had enough of his own, but right now he needed to know everything.

"Okay, going by the looks on your faces I'd say I just stumbled onto some kind of family secret or something, but trust me when I say it isn't that big of a deal. I've dealt with strange things for most of my life, and right now I need to know everything there is to know so I can change myself back."

"I'm kind of from another planet," said Clark.

"Clark!" shouted both of the parents in shock.

"Look at him, he needs to know," said Clark in a tone that was half argument, half pleading for them to understand.

"It's okay, I said that I could deal with the strangeness so I'll deal with the strangeness," said Xander. "Are you sure you're from a different planet and not just from another dimension?"

"We're sure," said Jonathan in a very firm tone.

"Okay, that brings us to the freaky statue impressions and the fact that I now have the same skin tone as a marshmallow," said Xander as he started to scratch around his eyepatch, something that was quickly becoming a nervous habit with him. "Don't suppose that teleportation trick you pulled a few seconds ago was just you moving really, really fast, was it?"

"Yeah, it was," said Clark.

"Okay, can you do more, or is that it?"

"Why do you need to know?" asked Jonathan.

"Because I'm guessing that the statue imitations from earlier was me moving fast, and I'd like to know what else he can do so I can know what else I may or may not be able to do so I don't hurt anyone," said the ex-carpenter with a bit of a growl in his voice. "Listen it's pretty obvious that you're protective of your son, and that's a good thing most of the time. However the two closest people in my life are a powerful witch and a woman that could bench-press a car, so I really don't care about your son being an alien."

"A witch?" asked Clark in disbelief.

In response Xander simply took out his cell phone that was thankfully undamaged, and selected the number one memory slot.

"Hey Willow, I need a proof special… No it isn't a new Slayer; your spell was right about this area being Slayer free… No I'm not in any trouble. Come on, this is me we're talking about… Hey, I resemble that remark! Just send the typical package… Thanks Wills. Tell Buffy I said hi if you see her, bye," said Xander right before he flipped the phone shut.

"What was that all about?" asked Martha.

"That was me arranging proof. You see we figured that some people wouldn't believe that the supernatural exists, so we came up with a plan to convince people. Basically what we do is teleport the basic survival kit of our occupation onto the kitchen table. It should be arriving any minute now," said Xander as he turned expectantly to said kitchen table.

"Yep, any minute now," said Xander after a rather long amount of time had passed, and the Kent's were looking at him like he had lost his mind.

Any questioning of Xanders sanity was cut off before it began as the cell phone started to ring, and the one eyed man quickly answered it. No one in the room required special hearing to hear the frantic female voice that blasted out of the small speakers, even if only two people in the room could make out what that voice was saying.

"No Willow, I'm not possessed again. I think it's more of a Swim Team thing than a Hyena thing… I don't know exactly what happened, and the people that can help me figure it out currently think I've lost my mind… I'm not getting snippy with you Willow. Listen to my voice; this is a calm, non-snippy, voice… It's okay Willow, I'd freak out too if I was in your shoes. Of course my freaking out would mostly be due to physical pain because you have small women feet while I have manly construction worker feet, so being in your shoes would hurt… Okay that sounds like a good plan. I'll just stay here and try to convince these nice people that I'm not insane while you get that set up."

"Girlfriend?" asked Martha Kent with a slight smile on her face as she tried to defuse the last bit of tension.

"Nope, just best friend," said Xander.

"That's usually how the best ones start," said the older woman with a smile. She'd heard those playful tones often enough to know that if those two weren't together now they would be in the future.

"Listen I'm not going to list all the reasons me and Willow won't get together because I don't think you want to hear me talk for the next ten hours. However I will tell you that one of the major reasons is that Willow is currently very happy with a girlfriend of her own."

"Oh," said the Kent matron as an embarrassment induced blush crept onto her face.

"What did she mean when she said she couldn't find your aura?" asked Clark, right before a large bang of displaced air filled the kitchen.

"It means exactly like it sounds," said Xander as he opened a case that hadn't been there a few seconds before. "The short version is that the monsters under the bed really do exist, and I help to kill the monsters before they can kill innocent people."

"You kill monsters, with sharp sticks," said Jonathan as he pulled out a stake from the weapons case.

"'So Your Daughter is a Slayer.' What's a Slayer?" asked Martha as she started to read the information pamphlet the former Scooby Gang figured should be included in all future Slayer recruitments.

"Mystically empowered girls that are on the front lines of a war. I'm here to find out how needed they are in this town and the surrounding area. This area is starting to get a reputation of high deaths and mysterious events, if there isn't already a demonic presence in this town there will be soon."

"You're saying that demons, real demons, will be coming here?" asked Clark.

"Yeah, but you probably won't have any more than a dozen at a time at worst. We thought that this place may be a new mystical hot spot, but I'm going to say the strangeness has more to do with the meteors than magic," said Xander with a shrug. "Chances are you'll probably have demons coming here thinking the same thing, but when they don't feel any mystical pull and see the number of altered humans they won't stay too long."

"You know about the meteors?" asked Clark while his parents remained silent. Both of them had noticed how Xander had glossed over his explanation of what a Slayer was before trying to distract them with the news that demons were coming to their town, and neither of them liked the glossed over version. However they were both willing to let it go, for now.

"Before I came here I met a girl in a coffee place that explained the whole thing to me. That's how I know this whole thing is my fault, because I was the one with one of the stupid things in my pocket and I was the one that cast the stupid stabilizing spell when it looked like you were going to die. The spell is meant to strengthen a dying life force by letting it draw strength from the healthy life force of the caster."

"That's why you think you have all the different abilities I do, because we bonded life forces?" asked Clark.

"Yep, and that's why I need to know if you can do anything else," said Xander as one chalk white hand brushed through his black hair.

"The sun's almost down, so how about we wait a few minutes and then I can show you, and you can try to duplicate them."

"Sounds good to me. I don't think I'll be in a rush to go anywhere for a while, unless you people know of a good pirate/mime convention," said Xander with a bit of a smirk.


	4. In the Moonlight

Xander glared at the full moon that hung above him. The amount of reflected sunlight wasn't enough to send him into crippling pain, but it was making him uncomfortable and irritable.

Crap, this meant he may be like this three nights a month. So help him, the first person that even mentions PMS will wish that they were living in a hell dimension.

"Okay, this is a good spot," said Clark, snapping Xander out of his silent rant.

"Now you already know that I'm fast, but I'm really strong too," said the young teen, as he easily lifted up a tractor with one hand.

"Man, I bet the people at the carnival must love you," said Xander as he walked over to the tractor and lifted as hard as he could with both hands.

Now, Xander Harris had seen many sights in his life, such as the Mayor of his town turning into a giant snake, and a human/demon/robot hybrid that spat in the face of the laws of man and nature. However seeing a two ton tractor rise hundreds of feet into the air, flipping end over end several times, because of his own strength seemed to eclipse them all.

Xander couldn't help but wince as gravity finally took hold once again, and turned into a mangled wreck the second it hit the ground. "Did I mention that I'd pay for any damages I cause?"

"Nice to know," said Clark as he looked at the metal wreck with a frown. His father was a proud man that didn't like taking money from others, but that may change if the one eyed man kept up this level of destruction.

"Okay, moving on," said the alien of the group as he walked over to the expensive pile of scrap iron and casually pressed his hand onto one of the more jagged pieces of metal. "It takes a lot to hurt me. So far the only exception seems to be the meteor rocks, but you already knew that."

"Nice," said Xander with a smile as he repeated the younger man's movements. His flesh gave a bit at first, but after that the dense matter simply gave way as easily as if it had been made out of paper.

"Okay the next one is a bit tricky, but try to see what's inside the barn."

"What?"

"I can kinda see through things," said Clark with an almost embarrassed look on his face.

"Oh boy. Here's a word from someone who has a bit more experience than you do. Never, ever, tell a woman you can do that unless you want to talk in a very high voice for the rest of your life. It doesn't matter how hard you are to hurt, they'll find a way if you get them mad enough."

"Hey, I don't use my power like that!" Clark immediately protested.

"You're a teenager who can see through clothes, and you're saying that you've never used this particular power while looking in the direction of a hot girl?"

"No!"

Xander simply raised the eyebrow above his working eye and folded his arms over his chest.

"Okay so there may have been one time when I was looking at the girl's locker room."

"Thought so," said Xander with a smirk.

"Listen, can you just check to see if you can look through the barn so we can move on, please?"

"Sure," said Xander as he turned towards the opaque barn that was standing just a couple of dozen feet away. "So just how does this work anyway?"

"Just try to focus past the barn while still looking at the barn," said Clark.

Xander did as he was told, and was surprised when he could see inside the barn. Then suddenly the world blurred as if he had spent a couple of seconds inside a very fast moving car, and he was now looking at a very attractive, familiar looking, dark haired teenage girl get ready for bed.

Xander instantly turned his head the second the girl started to get undressed. There was no question she was jailbait. Also there was no way he was going to go super powered stalker on a girl still in high school, that was Angel's gig, not his.

"You could have warned me that this comes with a zoom function," grumbled Xander as soon as he opened his eye again.

"What?" asked the young Kriptonion with a confused expression on his face.

"Listen unless you have a hot brunet undressing in your barn I saw something from a lot further off."

"You saw Lana?"

The feeling of familiarity suddenly clicked into place for the former carpenter. "Yeah, the girl from the coffee place. How far away does she live?"

"About a mile," said Clark with a bit of wonder. "How did you do that?"

"You're asking me? Until the spell I was completely human and could only zoom with a video camera. Are you saying you can't do it?"

"No, but it wouldn't surprise me if I could some day. Over the last couple of years I've been getting more and more powerful, with a new power showing up ever couple of months or so."

"So even if you show me everything that you can do, you're saying that it may not be everything I can do," said Xander with a resigned sigh as he started to scratch under his eyepatch again.

"Yeah, guess I am, sorry about that," said Clark sounding guilty that his powers had been passed onto someone else.

"Don't worry about it, I'll deal with any new powers that comes up, and my friends are tough enough that I probably won't hurt them by accident while I'm learning to control it."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that," said Clark in a serious voice. "There's one more thing I can do, and if you aren't really careful you could kill someone without trying."

"Show me," said Xander in an equally serious voice to prove to the younger man that he wasn't going to ignore the warning.

Clark turned back to the tractor and squinted his eyes. Xander noticed that the air in front of the farm boy's eyes was slightly distorted before is attention was occupied by the explosion that came from the wreck.

"And the term 'if looks could kill' suddenly becomes more than a figure of speech," said Xander as he watched the flames lick at the twisted metal.

"I don't like using that when I don't absolutely have to," said Clark in a voice that conveyed just how afraid he was of his own abilities, a fear Xander was beginning to share.

"That's not too bad, I've met people that could toss fire around like normal people would toss a baseball," said Xander in what he had hoped was a reassuring voice. "So just how do I activate that power."

"By thinking about girls, at least at first," Clark quickly said, clearly uncomfortable with the details.

"The fact that you haven't burnt down half the town by now shows that you have a lot more restraint than I did when I was sixteen," said Xander as he turned to face the burning pile of parts and started to think about the girls that had made up his love life.

Neither Xander nor Clark noticed that Xanders single eye went from a deep brown to ice blue, but they did notice that instead of getting higher the flames instantly died out.

"That's never happened before," said Clark as he inspected the trail of frost that started a few feet from Xander, and got heavier the closer he got to the tractor.

"Maybe some of my powers are just different from yours," suggested Xander. "You don't seem to be hurt by the sun and you don't look like an albino, so it isn't that much of a stretch to think that some other things could be different as well."

"I guess," said Clark as he ran his hand over the surface of the extremely cold metal. It wasn't encased in ice like you would expect if this was a comic book, but if he had to guess Clark would say that the temperature of the metal was far below freezing.

"Come on, let's get you back before your parents think I vaporized you or something," said Xander as he engaged his super speed and started to head back to the house at speeds Indy 500 drivers would envy.

The race was actually close, because while Xander appeared to be just as fast as Clark, the young alien had more experience using the power. It ended up being a tie, both opening the door at the same time.

"Hey Clark, that you?" asked a familiar voice from inside the house. "You would not believe what I dug up on a guy I met at the Talon today. He said that he was here to find a place for a private school, but his past is worthy of the Wall of Weird."

"Chloe, I'm hurt, I thought you trusted me more than that," said Xander with an easy grin designed to put her at ease. It probably would have worked if his chalk white skin didn't mark him as being altered by the meteors and this particular blonds experience with people that have been altered by meteors.

"Stay back," said Chloe as she frantically reached into her purse for the taser she kept there.

"Don't worry Chloe, he won't hurt you," said Clark as he stepped out from behind the slightly older man.

"I don't know how he looked like when he met you Clark, but when I saw him this morning he didn't look like Patches the Clown, he's been infected by the meteors," said Chloe.

"I know, I was there when it happened," said Clark in a soothing manner. "He's been with me the whole time after he changed and hasn't tried to hurt me."

"He could be faking," said the future reporter.

"Do you really think that I'd let him be around my parents if I thought he was dangerous?" asked Clark, a bit of heat in his voice.

Chloe seemed to deflate a bit at that, and put the electrical stunning device back in her purse. It wasn't too hard to tell that Chloe had had bad experiences with those altered by the meteors when one saw her reactions just now and combined them with their conversation earlier, but Clark was probably more reluctant to think that Xander was a threat than he usually considering Xander's powers were almost a mirror of his own.

"So Chloe, why don't you tell Clark just what you found out about my past," said Xander with a bit of a forced smirk, making an effort to draw the attention back to himself.


	5. Fear the blond ones

The information that Chloe gave was to the point and just more than a bit disturbing in its accuracy. Some of the information she presented should have been buried with Sunnydale.

"You stole a rocket launcher?!" shouted Clark.

"They never proved that, she even said so," said Xander as he pointed at Chloe. He was trying to put on his best innocent act. It wasn't working.

"No I said that for some reason they never charged you, they had more than enough proof," said Chloe as she pulled out a fuzzy picture of someone Xanders height and weight carrying a crate off of the Sunnydale Military Base.

"That could be anyone," stated Xander.

"And this one?" asked Chloe as she produced a very clear photo of him in the mall setting up the rocket launcher to use on the Judge.

"Man I thought I had taken out all of the cameras before this. It really isn't as easy as they make it look on TV," said Xander as he gave up all pretences to being innocent.

"You stole a rocket launcher!" shouted Clark.

"More like barrowed with the intent to save people," said Xander in a calm voice. "If I had used it any other way I would be sitting in a military prison for the rest of my life, wouldn't I?'

"So you didn't use it to blow up your school a year later?" asked Chloe.

"That was a gas leak," Xander firmly stated.

"Gas leaks don't leave 'unidentifiable organic matter' all over the place," said Chloe as she read from a sheet of paper.

"Well neither do rocket launchers, therefore I didn't use the one I stole from the army base to blow up the school."

"Did you blow up the high school Xander?" asked Clark in what was a classic disapproving big brother voice, despite the fact that the alien was several years younger than the one eyed man.

"Unless she has some photos in there that show me blowing up the school then I'm going to have to say that I didn't."

"But you'd change your story when she finds those photos, wouldn't you," stated Clark in the same disapproving tone.

"Yeah I would. Listen you know, and she's figured, out that there are just some things that I can't or won't talk about, mostly because one of you would call people that would put me in a nice rubber room."

"I don't know, I have a very open mind," said Chloe.

"Okay I didn't want to put it this way but, it isn't your mind I'm worried about as much as your open mouth. You're a reporter, and if I tell you everything it could hurt a lot of innocent people if you told the wrong person."

"If there is a reason for teenagers to steal rocket launchers then the world deserves to know," said the small blond teen, her voice lacking the strength of conviction that it usually held. What if this one eyed stranger was telling the truth and innocent people would get hurt if she kept digging?

Xander could tell that his comment about innocent people had gotten to her, and if he pushed it hard enough he may be able to get her to drop this. On the other had though, she was one scary girl when it came to finding facts that no one should be able to find.

"Okay Clark I'm going to ask you a question and I need you to be completely honest with me," said Xander in the most serious tone that either teen had heard him use.

"Sure, I can do that," said Clark, even though he felt his gut twisting around in fear of just what question Xander would ask.

"Is Chloe here a good person? And by good person I mean someone that would help someone else if they were in trouble, someone who tries to do what she thinks is right even if it ends up blowing up in her face later."

"Yeah, she is," said Clark, feeling more than a bit guilty for not telling her his own secret now that he had just confirmed to someone else that his friend was a good person.

"Okay then," said Xander as he turned back to Chloe and held her in a deep penetrating stare. "I trust Clark so his word will buy you one chance. After I get some sleep I'm going to call some people and ask them if I should tell you what I know. If they think it's safe to tell you I will, and we can decide where to go from there."

"That works for me," said Chloe.

"In that case I'm going to go back to my hotel and sleep for the next week, or until the caffeine level in my blood drops to life threatening levels," said Xander as he stifled a yawn.

Clark simply nodded and wished the older man a good night as Xander walked out the door and became a blur of motion as soon as he was out of Chloe's sight. The night had been revealing to say the least, and frightening wouldn't be too far off in describing some parts of it. Someone with abilities to match his had all but admitted to blowing up his high school.

The truly frightening part though was that Clark still trusted the altered twenty something man. Maybe it was because they now shared similar powers, or perhaps it was because the one eyed man had attempted to help the alien when he thought Clark was in trouble, but he felt that Xander had been telling the truth when he said that he had a good reason for stealing that rocket launcher.

Hoping that he wasn't setting himself up for a fall Clark told Chloe that she should probably go home as well, it was getting late and they had school the next day.

* * *

"You're late," said a voice from the darkness inside of Xanders hotel room.

"Wasn't expecting visitors," said Xander as he turned on the light and saw a man that looked about the same age as Jonathan Kent in what even he could tell was an expensive suit, a goon on either side. "Okay you were waiting for me in the dark and you have two goons with you to manhandle me for some reason, just how many clichés are you going for here tonight?"

"While I'm glad to see that you've retained a sense of humor after your obvious encounter with the more exotic geological wonders Smallville has to offer, I'm sure that you can recognize the value of remaining unobserved until the appropriate time," said the man.

"And that tells me nothing other than that you like to use fancy words. If you're going to be like this all night I'm going to ask you to leave until I get some sleep or a really good cup of coffee."

"To the point then. The school you and your friends are establishing in Cleveland has a rather large number of girls enrolled who were reported missing or presumed dead just a few months ago. Yet in a remarkably short amount of time they have all been returned to their families, and those who were presumed killed along with their loved ones have had the school named as their legal guardians," said the man.

"So we're generous, last time I checked that was a good thing," said Xander who really didn't like the direction this conversation was going.

"It is, but the speed in witch you accomplished this makes the situation suspicious at best," said the well groomed man.

"You wouldn't happen to know a local blond girl would you? She's about yea tall and gives off the same vibe as an overly caffeinated pixy," said Xander as he put his right hand just under his chin.

"So you've met the intrepid Ms. Sullivan. Let me guess she has dug up more information on you and your friends than you thought possible and confronted you with it, perhaps with a threat to take it to the papers?"

"Yeah that's her," said Xander.

"A truly remarkable young woman, but in this particular instance she is not the source of my information. You see about a year ago I became aware of a rather singular organization operating out of England. A few months ago all the men I had identified as the leaders of this organization were killed in a tragic accident, a few weeks after that you and your friends began to handle the funds of these now deceased individuals using it to build your school in Cleveland."

"Okay let's completely cut the crap here, just who are you and what do you want?" asked Xander his patience completely running out.

"My name is Lionel Luthor, and what I want is a mutually beneficial arrangement. You see I can be a rather influential friend, or a devastating enemy, the choice is yours."

"I'm not going to agree to anything until I hear the details of this mutually beneficial arrangement," said Xander in the most moderate term he could manage. In all honesty though he was considering using his new powers to give the mans genitals a bad case of frost bite.

"Very well," said the elder Luthor. "You are an errand boy, despite what your associates have told you. They send you around the globe while they consolidate their power back in England, and when you return your position will be little better than a neutered lap dog, kept only as long as you please your masters."

"Let me guess, you'd change all of that if I helped you into the top seat," said Xander in the most sarcastic voice he could manage.

"In a word, yes," said Luthor. "You wouldn't hold the top position true enough, but your overall situation would be much improved."

"Well my reply is, in a word, no," said Xander. "If you want to hear my full multi-word response, please stick around. I wouldn't recommend it though. Most of those words I'd use imply or outright say that you enjoy having inappropriate sexual relations with your mother."

"I'd reconsider your response, and do so rather quickly," said the multibillionaire as his two goons began to advance toward Xander in a threatening manner.

"Oh please, if you knew anything about what I've done with the last seven years of my life you'd know that wouldn't work. Now that I picked up some nifty and very lethal souvenirs to go with my new skin tone this little intimidation tactic has zero chance of scaring me," said Xander as he attempted to restrain the urge to turn all three of these jerks into ice statues.

Well maybe they wouldn't become ice statues. Xander remembered hearing somewhere that humans were mostly water, and water was supposed to expand when it froze. Following that line of thought maybe they'd blow up or something if he used his new power on them. It's an interesting question; he'd have to test it out on some vamps to see what would happen.

The two goons had wisely stopped advancing, and Lionel was looking just the slightest bit nervous. Good, the man had been way too confidant from the moment Xander had walked into the room.

"Tell you what; I'm going to give you one get out of painful death free card in just a minute," said Xander in what he hoped was an intimidating voice. "Walk out the door and never mention what you know or think you know to anyone and I'll forget everything you've said and done tonight. Otherwise you make your calls and I'll make my calls and we'll see who regrets not backing down."

"Very well, if that's your position our business for tonight is concluded," said the well dressed man as he got up to leave the hotel room.

The moment that the three men had left Xander picked up the hotel phone and once again dialed one of the few numbers he had memorized.

"Hey Giles, when you get this message do me a favor and find out what connections a Lionel Luthor could have had to the old Council. He was waiting in my hotel room trying to strong arm me into helping him take over so I'm thinking that this may be something that needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later."

With that he hung up the phone, and then wrote a quick note to himself to call Giles again later. The man was very big with the knowledge of demonic evil, but things like checking the answering machine when the red light was blinking still confused the man at times.

Well it had been a long day, definitely time to get some sleep before crankiness began to settle in. Yeah crankiness and superpowers definitely don't mix, that was a reason he had avoided Buffy three days a month back in high school. He had no problem fighting vampires, but there were some things that even he thought were suicidal, and that definitely qualified as one of them.

With a slight smirk on his face Xander removed his eyepatch and closed his good eye, and let himself drift off to sleep.


End file.
